Video games have generally had a fairly bad run when it comes to movie adaptations. Either they veer too far away from their source material and lose their gamer fans, or they lean too far into it and go over the heads of mainstream audiences. So when it was announced that they were making a live action adaptation of Nintendo’s video game Detective Pikachu, there was definitely an air of…
A fact that you may not yet realise: More people are talking about the new Pokemon movie than the new Toy Story movie after both trailers debuted the same day.
While it’s unfortunate that a perfectly enjoyable movie like “Pokemon: Detective Pikachu” should share a theater with an essentially PERFECT film (*cough*Endgame*cough*), it does easily earn two very important accolades:
A) It is the greatest video game film of all time by a pretty huge margin
B) It is, by an almost equally large margin, the best Pokemon story ever told
This movie accomplished things that the game developers haven’t in over two decades of releases. So here, in no particular order, are 4 lessons the source material could learn from Rob Letterman’s big screen adaptation.
Make the Premise a Little Kinder
Ever since a big budget Pokemon movie was announced, I wondered how they would tell a family-friendly story in a seemingly cruel universe; the average citizen is EXPECTED to capture wild animals to make them fight each other for sport. Pretty rough, right?
Well thankfully, this script establishes early on that for a Pokemon to be captured, said creature must CHOOSE the trainer as well, or in other words, consent. And then there’s Ryme City: a utopia in which Pokemon and humans live as equals. Speaking of the setting…
Make the World Feel Lived In
Everything in this cinematic version is fully realized, from Squirtles being trained as firefighters to the way Loudreds also double as a DJ’s living subwoofer. In almost every single shot, there is a Pokemon doing something adorable and fascinating in the background, and the games have just never reached this level of immersion. Usually the creature is just standing motionless next to their trainer, who in turn is doing nothing but standing around waiting for the main character. Let me remind you, this was in a game released in 2018.
Make Your Main Character Actually a Character
While Justice Smith is drowned out in every scene by the sound of Ryan Reynolds chewing up the digital scenery, the two had something very important in common: their characters were likable. Tim Goodman because his struggle to find his dad is laced with relatable emotional baggage (giving the movie it’s thematic focus), and Pikachu because… well honestly, we’ve known since the first trailer that he was going to be equal parts hilarious and endearing. Compare this to the wordless, faceless, emotionless protagonists in the Pokemon games and… well there is no comparison, actually.
Make a Story Worth Telling
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, Detective Pikachu is actually a story, complete with character folly, plot twists, thrilling set pieces, and a heartfelt message about opening up your heart to a world that often makes you feel vulnerable. It’s not the greatest story ever, and at a brisk 105 minutes, they probably could have explained a few of the more confusing plot points a little better. But I was still invested. The Pokemon games accomplish this with the rewarding gameplay loop of catching new Pokemon, leveling them up, rinse, repeat. It’s so ironic that in a genre (RPGs) famous for its complex and compelling stories this series takes so few chances.
Not something they were worried about over at Warner Brothers. The Mr Mime scene ALONE took more risks than the franchise has in 8 iterations.
So take note, Pokemon Company. And while you’re at it, we’d like VR Pokemon Snap, if it’s not too much trouble. But in the meantime, thanks WB for a really entertaining movie.
Kinda thinking of that post that’s saying the Pokemon in Detective Pikachu are good because they’re “cartoony” when in reality they’re pretty realistic, but keep a good balance between their cartoonishness without the creepy hyperrealistic renderings we’re used to seeing out of edgelord artists. Ironically, the people who did this movie took a lot of cues from an artist on Deviantart who did hyperrealistic-looking Pokemon.
I dunno, these look pretty realistic to me. The key is they render the cartoony elements (like Majikarp’s eyes and the shape of his fins) pretty accurately so it doesn’t just look like a rat hauling a weird fish, you can tell that’s a Pikachu and a Majikarp.
They also did a good job keeping most of the cute Pokemon looking fairly cute,
although you can still get moments where Aipom and Jigglypuff appear legitimately creepy and threatening when angered.
Then there are Pokemon who are odd-looking because they were always meant to appear odd-looking
And the ‘scary’ Pokemon actually look like dangerous, powerful monsters!
What I like about these designs is that they’ve got a good balance of traits that make them instantly recognizable enough that any Pokemon fan can name them at a glance, but given just enough nuance and realistic elements that presumably wouldn’t render very well in a cartoon. (For example, the little hairs on the inner part of Jigglypuff’s ears, Pikachu’s fluffy fur, and Charizard’s rough, dinosaur-like scales).
You can tell the people behind the design choices are really passionate about Pokemon and wanted to create characters you could easily suspend your disbelief to accept and also fully enjoy with the original ‘flavor’ of Pokemon as a long-time fan.
And anyway I just wanted to talk about how cool that all was.
